To become a widow is to set out onto a path unknown. We don’t choose to be widows, yet here we are! We are unsure of the path we find ourselves on and we haven’t a clue of where we are going or who we are anymore Yet still, here we are.

Have you been giving attention to world events, to the ups and downs - floating around, going to ground.... Grief for some, anger for others, abuse and nightmares can be found everywhere I look lately.

It is a busy place just now, don't lose your head in the news and views of others.

Now and again, take yourself off on an adventure of the mind....

Imagine yourself floating away on a cloud, being outside makes that obviously easy.

Or take yourself into the Earth, following the path of the intrepid earth mover.

The adventures can lead you to leave the stresses behind, often where they belong, behind you and in the past.

The magpie called to me just now
You can't imagine the amount of time I spend in the past before I realise, and present myself, once again to the present. It doesn't matter how many years of practice one spends in meditation, it still happens, you just make your way back quicker as time goes by. I think I have turned it into an art form :)

The truth with loss is, you are so connected at the time to giving comfort, to tending to their needs that you are totally unaware of yourself as witness to the suffering.

The witness speaks her words to me today and I am rendered speechless, for in that moment I realise his quiet suffering... Oh My Lord it's so hard to remember that.

The past takes me back because I miss him, even the suffering was something we shared.

I close my eyes and become aware of my inner world as I listen to the outer, to the birds, to the cars and I feel overwhelmed by sadness still, until the magpie calls me.

Above my seat the magpie sits high on a branch and sings so gently, so quietly and quite unlike the usual.

I have travelled to many countries that have these birds, but none sing like the Australian magpie. And I have never heard a magpie sing as gently as this one just now.

It is a call to Grace, a call of remembrance. Not of the suffering I witnessed but of who I Am and where I Am.

The family of magpies and I didn't get along a couple of years back, they used to swoop my head whenever I went out, and one day while I was on the back porch it knocked my sun hat right off my head, they are fearsome birds. It bewildered me because I was one that felt birds talked to me; if a bird swoops near my car as I drive, I take notice of the road ahead and this once saved my life when I saw just in time, a ladder on the road.

We are all friends now because of a magic moment. The female magpie kept flying at me one afternoon until I realised she wasn't swooping, she was alerting me to something. I took a look around and her baby was caught up in fencing cloth, a little like shadecloth and it's leg was injured.

I was really scared but knew I had to help so I covered it's head and cut the cloth - off it flew. Even though the birds weren't happy sharing this property, they knew I would help them in their hour of need. I always felt the sacredness of that moment.

Today, I know the family are returning the favour; they are helping me with their song - A Call To Grace.

It is 11am on the 20th July 2014, the sun is shining, I sit on my rocker facing north east, I see red geraniums, I hear the roar of the motor bikes on their Sunday ride and I smile.

Today I Am with you magpies, out into the garden I go and thank you for your gentle reminder of the moment - It is so not 4 years ago, it is NOW!

Venice reminds me of life, there are so many water roads, round and round they go, the pathways have dead ends but the waterways flow endlessly. Maybe we need to jump off the path sometimes, and let the waterways take us away with the tides.

Ah winter, thank you for waiting for me - the sun shone and we had warmth when I really needed it and you held yourself back. Now you're here and I want to say, I really love your cold days - I may even learn to love your freezing winds - please know I am working on it.

Isn't it funny where your mind takes you when you have nothing to do. Today I was thinking about where I'm going and how am I getting there..Great idea, but the power went out! Argh, no cooking, no shower, no TV, no reading

This post today continues the Tuesday Wellsprings Life Series.

Life is not all beer and skittles is it? And yet, with media showering us with 'the right way to look, to feel, to dress, to be' we can be left feeling so inept when faced with everyday troubles that everyday people just don't seem to suffer...Ha!

When faced with troubles,

You can feel like you are facing a storm

When faced with a storm,

Aim for the eye of it, shoot straight

In the eye of a storm you will find

A calm centre of retreat

Troubles are more easily dealt with there

The storm will pass

And the rainbow will once again shower you with colour

Into each life some rain must fall, but too much is fallin’ in mine Into each heart some tearswill fall, but someday the sun will shine

('Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall' - Fisher and Roberts - sung by Ella Fitzgerald 1944)

Storms and troubles are a natural part of life, every body will have the ups and then the down days.

Shoot straight into the eye of it and stand true, no matter how much rain falls nor how many tears you shed, a way can be found if you place yourself at the calm eye of the storm to think things through.

Seek the help of a trusted friend or a counsellor if the storm seems too hard, don't suffer alone.

Hope your day is as calm as can be, till next time, much love

WendyJoy xx

Meditation can be very helpful, interested in learning how?
Counselling is available at Wellsprings, Or you can call Lifeline open 24 hours every day 131144

Anzac Day today. It is a day of emotion for me, I grab the tissues and watch the parade on TV. A very special time of year to celebrate the men and women who went off to war(s).

Celebrate here is a word that means to celebrate those people who served, for their actions and for their bravery, it does not mean to blow up balloons, drink to excess and make a nuisance of oneself. A game of two up maybe obligatory.

The thing on TV I have noticed just lately are the ads for beer. They get me noticing because of the elderly men talking about what they are remembering, and then I see it's just a beer ad. It annoys me to tell you the truth because I feel tricked into watching it.

I don't mind anyone having a beer, goodness knows the veterans wouldn't either, but all I seem to hear about this Anzac Day is beer, a footy match (and beer ads) as if that is our Anzac Day tradition. It's not, the RSL breakfasts and the Anzac Day Parades are! I cry every year watching them on the telly.

My dad was a run away boy at 14, he joined the army, and was in Darwin when it was bombed till Gran brought him home; he then went on to join the navy and stayed until the end of the second world war.

I never met my maternal grandpa because he became sick on his way home from the second world war after eating from a contaminated tin can, then got thrombosis and died a young man of 53. He was a soldier in the first world war too, what an amazing sense of duty, and by all accounts a lovely gentleman. So many of the people of the 1st and 2nd world war eras can wear the title of gentle person.

We are different now, but it's not hard to stand with them today is it?

Here is a picture of Mr Fraser, in France 2nd May 1917. He was a treasured friend of my great aunts': They never married, I guess if you lost all the friends you loved...... it would have been so very hard, Lest We Forget..

I do hope we Australian's can remember why we have a public holiday today. I hope we celebrate it as a remembrance day, and go about our lives with a sense of wonder and awe at the sacrifice defense forces have made.

We don't celebrate wars, nor Anzac Day really, we celebrate the people, those like my grandpa and Mr Fraser, and stand with those who will remember them.

Does your heart just sing with a loving sense of peaceful joy when you watch them tell their stories? Mine does, pass me the tissues please.

Dedicated with love to all the men and women and animals who lost their lives to war, and to all those who lived to tell the stories, the truth of war.

We have good weather and bad weather friends and some in the middle. Throughout life we are not taught, and therefore are not equipped, with the words thoughts or deeds to help anyone other than those nearest and dearest, and sometimes not even them.